It's About Time
Izod Center, East Rutherford, New Jersey, October 10th, 2012. It was a Jonas Brothers reunion for one night only. After a three year break, the brothers were back for a trial run to see if the fans would still be receptive after moving on to Justin Bieber and One Direction. The world of pop and boy bands had changed in the past three years, and there was the possibility that the brothers had fallen from grace. Joe, Nick, and Kevin were back with new music and a new sound, and the fear that it might all be over.
Things had come to a pleasant calm while they were separate; it was easy enough to get decent concert tickets and no problem at all to get meet & greets. But the one concert that would change everything had people flying in from all over. When the tickets went on sale in August, I didn't get a meet & greet ticket. I couldn't even get a concert ticket. The reunion of a lifetime sold out in minutes, and I had nothing. I was stunned. Things had been going so well, I thought I was on the top of my starker game.
I knew I could eventually get tickets on Stubhub, but what about the professional picture with the three of them that I had waited five years for? I felt like a fangirl failure...until four days before the show, Golden Tickets sent out an email for an extra meet and greet opportunity for the show's dress rehearsal. Not only would I get to meet the boys, but I would see the show before anyone else. This is even better than what would have been. When I got an email confirmation I was swept with relief.
Usually you have months to prepare for these things, but in this case I would only have two days. On top of the fact that I'd have to take a midterm first and then take the bus to Jersey. My boyfriend met me in the city after my midterm for the sole purpose of delivering me to Jersey. He himself would have to come right back to the city for class, but him nor my mother trusted my non-sense of direction to get myself to Jersey. It's a good thing he did, because I originally took us on the wrong bus. It's the one and only time in my life I travelled anywhere from Port Authority. Because the dress rehearsal was on a weekday and nothing else was going on at Izod or MetLife, the bus leaves you on the side of the highway when it's not game day. Again, I'm so thankful I had a chaperone for this trip because what an adventure it was walking through the MetLife parking lot to Izod's parking lot via a connecting bridge. As usual I was rushing to make it by the skin of my teeth, and as usual the line still hadn't gone anywhere when I got there. Once I was securely where I was supposed to be, my boyfriend was back off to the city (rush hour traffic did not allow him to make it back to class on time, sorry bae).
Exactly 5 years, 1 month, and 15 days since I tried to do this for the first time, it was finally about to happen. I was a basket case of emotions as I waited in the wings, not knowing what to expect when you finally get everything you've ever dreamed of. As each Jonas hugged me hello, they told me how pretty I looked and how they liked my outfit. Of course they liked my outfit, I matched with them perfectly (happens every time 😉). It was an actual dream come true. Waiting up to 72 hours for this picture felt like it actually might kill me.
When your favorite artist goes on hiatus for an extended period of time and comes back, you don't know what to expect. They had grown up and so I had I. They had gone through all new life experiences that would change what they write about and how they sing about it. As a fan, you worry too that you won't be comfortable with the change. The music was fire, it was worth the wait. Everything felt new and exciting again as Nick sang about how Miley's newly announced engagement to Liam Hemsworth made him feel. My world felt at peace again with the missing piece finally restored.
The night was all I wanted to talk about, but when I still didn't receive my picture three days later as promised, I tweeted Golden Tickets. I got a nasty response asking me to be patient. You spend hundreds of dollars on something and then let me know if you'd be patient. Word to the wise, don't make promises you can't keep. So I was patient, and an entire WEEK went by! At this point, I emailed Golden Tickets and they were shocked that I hadn't received my picture and emailed it to me immediately. Seemed like sabotage from the Twitter troll. Finally, TEN days later I was able to post my picture for the world to see. It took TEN days for me to know that Nick SMILED in my picture...he NEVER smiles! Like I always said I would, I blew the picture up to the size of a poster and framed it on my wall. It's about time.
